I’m sure if I entirely believe any post about the accuracy of sci-fi films that begins with the phrase, “I’m not aware of any intense rivalry between Star Trek and Star Wars fans.” Of course, it’s still morning, so it could be that my sarcasm detector is warming up.
That said, a new blog post over on Shadowlocked claims to lend some fodder for the Star Wars side of the fight over science realism (which, let’s face it, seems to afford itself a lot of liberties based on the whole “galaxy far, far away” thing). The post cites a book from 2002 by astronomer Phil Plait, which examined an explosion from Star Wars alongside one from Star Trek.
According to the book, the re-imagined explosion of the Death Star in the 1997 re-release of A New Hope is actually a bit more accurate than the explodiness (that’s a word, right?) of the Klingon moon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Says Shadowlocked,

Since explosions in space tend toward spherical shape unless impeded, Plait concludes that the blast pattern resulting from the explosion of the Klingon mining operation has no credible reason to resolve into a ring form, even if everyone thinks the effect is far cooler here than in 1997’s revised New Hope.

So, I guess that settles that. Now, does anyone know a good neurologist who wants to tackle Jar Jar Binks?